Sapienophobia

Chapter 16

I needed to wash clothes.

Maybe I can put it off.

I had gone nose blind to the scent of the room. So much so that I was receiving complaints from the other butchers.

It had to be today.

The laundromat in the basement was empty, either because they smelled me coming or no one wanted to brave all the stairs back to the lobby with their hampers in tow midday. Including me.

It was hard enough convincing myself to go down there. The only reason I finally conceded was that Danny told me there was an ancient wash bucket in the corner.

The laundry room's floor had ceramic tile that had been cracked some time ago. The broken pieces wedged into the corners between the surrounding tiles and the mortar had been filed. I could tell that the tiles' original color was once a beautiful cerulean.
The odor of chemicals in the room was enough to make me sniffle.

I made my fingers sore at the speed at which I scrubbed my clothes with the brush.

The soak-and-rub method was inefficient, the glyphs would've sent me on my way before the clock struck an hour, but such is life.

I had heard Vera had gone to patrol the other guilds in a few other provinces. They never said goodbye, but I had a feeling they'd be back just in time for my deadline.

I limped back to my room to hang up my damp garments. I had wrung them out repeatedly, so I wouldn't get a lecture about buckling out the hardwood of the upper floors from Danny.

I used some peroxide to purge any microscopic maladies that might've colonized the clothes.

My pruney fingers retraced my bounty once they were up to dry in the closet. As opposed to my previous judgment, I deduced that this document showed shockingly little about my target. Sure, it gave me Sod's physical appearance and observed habits, but that's all I had to go on.

Even then, it was relatively vague.

Shifty and flexible can apply to a number of people, there should be more details. Did the people who made this bounty purposefully leave out information?
They would do that if they knew no one would take the bounty if they had told the truth.
Or they didn't want to bother; humans are confusing like that.

I worried that Vera was sending me on a wild goose chase with the bounty.

The information I do have is subjective.
What if Sod changes his tactics now that there's a bounty on him? I would've done that. Does he have any close family he can hide with? What were his victims like?

I had a decent answer for most of my questions but it would've been nice to know such things so I could make the best approach. Not that I wasn't going to verify either way.

Anide dispatchers received special privileges that weren't afforded to common Anides. We had access to mage libraries and other human-only commodities. We could even bear army-grade weapons with the right paperwork. I supposed it was recompense for being the necessary evil.

The necessary scapegoat.

Our brethren considered us "traitors to the race" as we killed our own. They thought of us as human puppets and made every stride to treat us as such.

Hypocrites, the lot of them. They would too if they had no other option to provide for themselves.

I hadn't experienced the malice firsthand yet, but I knew I'd have to sooner or later.

Not everyone can have such an admirable occupation as priests. Does no one value money first when looking for jobs?

The humans, on the other hand, found us expendable. They were too proud to dirty their hands with our blood themselves most of the time so they used more backhanded means. If we stopped killing, they'd probably resort to executions with excuses.

Hell, Sod's human victims were likely the cause of his bounty so straying far away from them was my best course of action anyway.

I just needed the mages' library to read up on the others.

"Isn't there an easier way?" I asked Danny.

"Easier than saying what you need and having what you're looking for appear in front of you?" The receptionist raised an eye ledge, annoyed.

"..."

"Why didn't you ask me to get it?" Herl leaned on the desk next to me.

"I assumed that it'd cost me extra because it's out of your way."

"It's free of charge because you're injured, Sod's victims right?" he held up a ring gesture.

He glossed over my bounty when I offered it to him. After several seconds, he nodded strutting out.

"You aren't going to take it with you?"

"No," he tapped his temple.

Will short-term memory last you that long?

Apparently so, he was at my door in the next two hours with a stack of journals well over his head. It seemed he got the human information as well.

The journals scattered on the floor as he dropped them. I scattered from the journals.

You can't be too careful when it comes to demon grimoires. Best to play it safe.

"They don't have protection spells or anything on them. The humans don't care enough to waste their magic on such things. But I did get an earful on preserving them. Seems like a hassle on their part. I guess that goes to show that they dread seeing Anides having anything to do with magical things. I bet they even jack up the prices on our gear," he grunted, nudging one of the texts with his foot.

I wouldn't know.

I thought it odd that Herl regarded human criticism in such a way.

I couldn't ask him about it because I feared gaining a new perspective.

"They're weak to water and fire, like everything, so there'll be hell to pay if you damage them," he advised.

You needn't tell me twice.

"I'll get more tomorrow, I'll throw my back out if I go back and forth like this," he rubbed his shoulder.

There's more? Sod might be scarier than I thought.

In hindsight, they were petty crimes so it would have made sense if he jipped a lot of people at once, like pickpocketing or identity theft.

"It's okay. This should be enough."

"Nonsense, if you're going to study, don't half-ass it," he lectured.

Why would I full-ass it if I could get the more or less same effect?

Herl continued to reprimand me with the "wisdom" some elders claimed to have but never presented when the time calls for it.

He's being too sensitive over such a minor issue.

He wasn't going to listen regardless of what I told him, so there was no point in wasting any more of my energy. I pretended to listen until he left.

I sprawled out on the hardwood, circling the texts in my purview. I filtered out all the humans because I knew that if they held any truths, the information would be skewed. I started to organize the remainder by the thickness of each account, but after a short reconsideration, I decided it would be best to order them chronologically.

My semi-preserved finger made an excellent paperweight.

The weak like to prey on other weak so my general idea of the victims' character should've been spot on.
The dates went back well before my birth, so I started with the earliest one I could find from those journals. I read it over twice to make sure I didn't miscomprehend.

So the first person he stole from was his grandma?